Edwin served as the Indiana State Bank Examiner for six years or more.1,5,7

The following article was published in the "Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette" (Fort Wayne, Indiana) on March 14 1916:15

HIGH FINANCE OF
WALLINGFORD STYLE

WILL BE DISPLAYED IN THE
TRIAL OF E.M. HINSHAW
FOR EMBEZZLEMENT.

NOBLESVILLE, Ind., March 14. -- That Indiana will be treated to a story of high finance of the Wallingford type was the prediction today of attorneys representing the state before the trial of E. M. Hinshaw opened. Hinshaw was president of the Farmers' and Merchants' National bank of Cicero when it went to the wall.

This trial, the attorneys said, promises to be the most celebrated of a series of criminal prosecutions on indictments that resulted after the Hamilton grand jury investigated the failure of three Hamilton county banking institutions.

George Bowen, one of the indicted men and president for many years of the Hamilton Trust company, has been convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to serve from one to fourteen years in the state penitentiary, to pay a fine of $500 and to suffer the penalty of two years disfranchisement.

Hinshaw is facing indictments charging embezzlement, larceny and conspiracy. Under the conspiracy charges, it is said, the attorneys for the state expect to bring forth their most remarkable evidence. With Hinshaw and Bowen were indicted John L. Hinshaw, Elmer L. Sturtevant and others.

Failure of the three banks was the cause of much misery to Hamilton county people who lost their savings, but this was for a time lost sight of during the Bowen trial, when stories of amazing financial transactions were told. What Hinshaw's defense will be is unknown except to the extent that [.. smudged - unreadable ..] that his institution was acting under state laws and was being passed upon as in satisfactory condition by state bank examiners.

The state alleges that the failure of the Hamilton Trust company, of which Bowen was the principal organizer, brought down the Cicero bank and the People's State bank of Arcadia, and the closing of the doors of a bank at Carmel, which has since resumed business. The state alleges that frenzied finance brought on the failures.

The defense throughout the Bowen trial contended that E. M. Hinshaw, the defendant in this trial, was the cause of all of Bowen's troubles. Bowen's defense introduced as evidence eight checks given by Hinshaw on the Fidelity Trust company of Indianapolis. The story of these checks as told by one of Bowen's attorneys was that Hinshaw, as president of the Cicero bank, told Bowen that the Farmers' and Merchants' bank had on deposit with the Fidelity Trust company $17,000 which he wished to transfer to the Hamilton Trust company, because he wished to keep the money in Hamilton county. According to Bowen's attorney, Bowen thought this a good piece of business and issued to J. L. Hinshaw certificates of deposit amounting to $17,000.

The defense contended that E. M. Hinshaw endorsed these checks as president of the Cicero bank, withdrew whatever amount was in the Indianapolis institution, and that when Bowen tried to cash the checks given on the Fidelity Trust company they were not paid. Bowen's defense admitted that he then accepted worthless securities issued by Hinshaw's company and that this was the beginning of the end of the three banks.

The following article was published in the "Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette" (Fort Wayne, Indiana) on April 5 1916:16

PRIVATE OPINIONS
PUBLICLY EXPRESSED

Retributive Justice.

To the Editor of the News:

A perusal of your editorial today on the subject of Mr. Hinshaw, who wrecked the little bank at Cicero, calls to mind the collapse of a state bank at our neighboring city of Auburn not many years ago through which many people were made to suffer. The same Hinshaw was then a state bank examiner under the Hanley administration and less than seventy-two hours before the Auburn bank closed its doors placed his seal of approval on the bank's condition. The junior member of the Auburn family of bank wreckers was made the goat and served a year in prison; the men who were the real wreckers went "scat free." In the intervening years Hinshaw has put in his time robbing the people of his own community and now he gets his. The training he received in the Auburn case gave him an opportunity, but he failed to find a goat and will now have to take the medicine.

The following article was published in the "Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette" (Fort Wayne, Indiana) on June 19 1916:17

Hinshaw's Trial.

NOBLESVILLE, Ind., June 19. -- Hamilton county people who lost thousands of dollars in small amounts through the failure of four Hamilton county banking institutions four years ago, attended in large numbers the opening session of the trial of J. L. Hinshaw today. Hinshaw is charged with conspiring to defraud the conspirators.

This is the third trial resulting from the bank failures. The other two resulted in the conviction of D. [sic] M. Hinshaw and President Bowen, of the Hamilton Trust company, of this city. Their appeals are pending.

The charge of the state is that the Hinshaws, Bowen and others conspired to manipulate the banks at the expense of the depositors and that the four failures resulted from the conspiracy.

The following article was published in the "Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette" (Fort Wayne, Indiana) on June 30 1916:18

A BAD CONDITION.

The conviction of Mr. Hinshaw, of Hamilton county, who so grievously transgressed the state banking laws, brings upon that unworthy man a richly merited punishment, but it does not relieve the depositors who lost their money. That is gone beyond recall nor is there solace for them in the thought that if the state officials had done their duty the Hinshaw bank would not have been looted. These officials were paid by the public, with money raised from taxpayers, to exercise a strict and careful supervision of state banks, yet the testimony at the trial of Hinshaw developed a condition of gross neglect on their part that tends to shatter public faith in financial institutions controlled by the state government. It is assumed that contributory negligence in cases of his character is not a criminal offense, but we take it that it would be a very difficult matter to convince the mourning depositors of the Hinshaw bank that it ought not to be. The man who draws a salary to prevent embezzlement and who through neglect of duty permits it to be committed, isn't in the last analysis a great deal better than the embezzler.

The following article was published in the "Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette" (Fort Wayne, Indiana) on July 24 1916:19

NOBLESVILLE, Ind., July 24. -- ...
...

The disagreement in the Metcalf case was the first in the four trials here resulting from the three bank failures in Hamilton county about a year ago. George Bowen, who was president of the Hamilton Trust company of this city until a short time before it was closed by the auditor of state, was the first convicted and sentenced to prison, charged with embezzlement. Edwin M. Hinshaw and John Luther Hinshaw, brothers, who controlled the Cicero bank until the reorganization by which Metcalf became its president, also were sentenced to prison. The convicted men are at liberty under bond, pending appeals to the supreme court.

Metcalf, who is less than 30 years old, had been the object of much sympathy. In his defense he attempted to show that he was led to enter the Cicero bank through misrepresentations of E. M. Hinshaw and that state examiners gave him reason to believe the bank was sound.

Widower Edwin and son Clark were shown in the 1920 census (Jan 3-5 1920), Iowa Park, Wichita County, Texas:20

Garrett, Granville B., head-of-household, age 60, born in Tennessee.

Garrett, Francis E., wife, age 59, born in North Carolina.

Garrett, India E., niece, age 26, born in Texas.

Howell, Seth J. and Lottie L., lodgers.

Henshaw, Edwin M., lodger, age 49, born in Indiana; father born in North Carolina; mother born in Indiana; widower; occupation: manager, oil company.

Edwin was shown in the 1930 census (Apr 2 1930), living in (or staying in) a rooming house at 216 South 2nd Street, Evansville, Vanderburgh County, Indiana:21

Henshaw, Ed, roomer, age 59, born in Indiana; father born in North Carolina; mother born in Indiana; single; occupation: producer, crude oil industry; not a war veteran.

Edwin was shown in the 1940 census (Apr 14 1940), living alone in El Monte Township, Los Angeles County, California:22

Hinshaw, Edwin M., head-of-household, age 69, born in Indiana; completed 8th grade; on Apr 1 1935 was living in the same house; [..marital status unclear..]; owned home ($1200 value); occupation: carpenter, building construction; worked 18 weeks in 1939; $0 wages in 1939, plus other income.

"Abstracts of the Records of the Society of Friends in Indiana", Part 6,
subtitled "Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, Volume VII",
(a compendium of many of the records left by William Wade Hinshaw on
his death), edited by Willard Heiss; GS929.3 H47 in a local library.

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